Sixteenth Summer

Sorrow

That faithful day, my world turned dull. Everything that was in color before turned to black and white, and my mind was a whirl of emotions and thoughts. My suitcase is still thrown on the floor of my bedroom where it was left when I got the news.

My parents decided to go spend the summer in England, where my grandpa had his home. They thought of it as a way to relieve some of the pain, but I only thought of how everything will be like without him now. My grandma has had a hard time ever since the funeral and I want to help her, but I don't know how. She has gotten all of my grandpa's things into boxes, claiming that she was going to donate them, but she has not gotten the courage to do so yet.

My friends from school have all called me and visited me before I left. Everytime they would go over, I would just break down and cry on their shoulders. Even though they did all they could to cheer me up, pain would only go away for a few seconds before it would come back. I decided I had enough and asked my parents to leave a few days earlier. They didn't question me and actually agreed with me.

The trip was longer than it ever was before. My mind didn't even concentrate enough to read a book or to even watch a movie on the way. All I did throughout the plane trip was look back through all my memories with my grandpa, but even they couldn't make the trip shorter.

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We got off the plane and went through the whole airport before we found the exit. All that walking around helped me stretch out my legs and my parents looked as if they had just walked a marathon, but I felt bad for them for carrying around everything and still walking all over the airport. I got a few bags, helping them a bit, and followed them around until we got a taxi. As I got in the taxi, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I looked to see who it was and was surprised to see 30 missed calls and like 100 messages from my friends, asking me where we were. I didn't even bother responding back and turned off my phone. The ride to grandpa's house was a bit long, and the gentle lull of the car brought me much needed sleep. Before I knew it, we were at our destination already.

As I was walking into the cottage to put my things in my room, I noticed how everything still had that warmth to them. I saw the portrait of my grandpa and I, and the wall holding back my emotions broke. I started to sob, feeling as if my heart was being torn apart, as memories played before me like a film. Grandma walked in to check on me and saw me crying. She just retreated back into the hallway, and softly closed the door. She understood how I felt and I felt grateful for that.

----

The sound of someone slamming the door woke me up. I had moved up so quickly that I felt dizzy. I groaned and laid back down. As I reached up to run my hands through my hair, I felt dry tears on my cheeks, and memories of yesterday came back.

'That's right,' I thought sadly, 'No more Sunday baseball games to look up for.'

I stood up, after recovering from the dizziness, and went to shower. As I walked to the restroom, I heard my grandma and mom talking in my parent's room. I quickly walked to the restroom and showered. After finding something to wear and braiding my hair, I went to the kitchen to make myself breakfast since my mom and grandma were busy. I made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with some orange juice, and made sure to make some coffee for my parents and grandmother.

As I was walking out the door, I saw a boy riding his bicycle through the street. That same boy later turned out to be a very important part of my life.